Dragon and the Phoenix

[RandomWiktor]

The Story So Far...
Beata and Anuja, two turkeys, narrowly escape the massive grasslands fire and find themselves in the predator-dense woods of Gallop Free. Dhurok, a local tom also ursurped by the fire, finds the females and has instant ambitions of adding them to his small flock. Beata is reluctant, but Anuja sees the value of safety in numbers, so the two follow Dhurok - albiet with some hesitance.
Origional Thread

Last Two Posts:
___Up ahead, Dhurok sighed slightly at the noise Cerva was making chatting it up with the new birds. Whatever she'd asked, it sure had russtled some exhuberance out of the previously moody and reserved Beata, who was now happily (and pretty loudly) conversing with the flock's hen. At this rate, they wouldn't have to worry about merely attracting predators; they were welcoming them over with open arms (and open mouths!). Shaking his head a little and pausing to listen as best he could and observe their surroundings, the tom almost startled when Quetzl came up along side him and quietly said,
___"Perhaps if we stay towards denser brush, we'll at least be harder to catch. There's not too much of a point in avoiding crunching leaves at this point." The smile in her eyes was sympathetic to the tom's thwarted efforts to keep things quiet for their safety.
___Dhurok was pleased by this suggestion, glad to see one of the hens assembled supporting him, and briskly bobbed his head in agreement. "Excellent idea Quetzl, thank you," he replied quietly, then changed directions to veer them closer to the burned grasslands. There should be few animals, predator or otherwise, coming at them from the direction of the wasteland, so sticking to the dense undergrowth at the forest's edge should be reasonably safe. He did not bother announcing the slight alteration in course, knowing that Cerva would follow and guide the other hens properly.
___Speaking of Cerva, Beata had her rapt attention. Unfortunately, being quite wild, Cerva had little concept of what a farm was, and her mental image was one of rolling cow pastures, not the dingy warehouses reserved for poultry. She was instantly puzzled as to why the birds had to wait for an incident to escape; after all, turkeys regularly came and went as they pleased from cow farms, picking seeds out of the feces and eating the bloated ticks that fell from the bovine's sides after feeding. She was polite enough, however, to not question it, and simply replied,
___"How very fascinating! That sounds very exciting. I'm afriad my past is comparably dull. I was born in the woods across the river, and came this way when human encroachment made it to threatening to remain there. That was some time ago, though; I've lived here most of my life."

((I counter your "bad" post with my craptastic post!!))

[RandomWiktor]

((This is war!))

~Beata had absolutely no concept of proper behavior as prey. After all, she had spent most of her life in a farm where predator-prey relations really didn't make much difference. One didn't have to worry much about predators when stuck in poultry cages unless the turkey nearest to you went insane and attacked. And Beata, having a "tough hen" attitude that reached the sky, had absolutely no problem with getting her "cage mates" to understand that while they could fight off the stress all they wanted, it had better not be with her. She always won, and so that and the brief human incident were her only experiences with "predators".

This made for one warped sense of how dangerous predators were. After all, the biggest predator she had been faced with were humans, and she had fended them off easily enough. What was a wolf or an eagle, both which were much smaller than humans and surely not nearly as powerful? The hen was certain that she could handle anything thrown her way after the farm, and thus saw no point in protecting herself.

Thus, she found it quite silly that Cerva would have to leave when humans made things threatening. Oh sure, they may try to capture them for farms, but they apparently could just peck at them and they were easily reduced to nothing. She probably would have happily stated this, too, had Anuja not practically read the hen's mind and quickly butted into the conversation. Perhaps Beata had a warped sense of her abilities as a turkey, but Anuja knew that the hen just was experiencing an amazing streak of luck. She doubted it would last.

"It's hardly as exciting as she makes it seem. Most of it was quite frightening. I think I would have preferred the quieter lifestyle."

Beata scowled bitterly in Anuja's direction, but as usual, Anuja hardly noticed, and cared even less.

"Is that how you met Dhurok and Quetzl, then?"

She didn't know much about normal turkey lives, and was curious to catch up on things so she didn't feel so out of place. Beata, however, found the conversation was getting quite boring, and her attention wandered. Even so, the female never did stray from the group, staying quietly with the group of turkeys even as she gazed at the land with rapt fascination and perhaps a desire to explore on her own. Perhaps she wasn't as confident in herself as she portrayed, Anuja thought wryly before returning her attention to Cerva.~

[DhurokQueztlCerva]

___Dhurok often envied the keen sense of smell possessed by the predators that stalked them; as they neared the grasslands, he could hear something rustling amid the grasses but could not discern if it were a harmless presence or a dangerous one. He supposed if it were hunting them, it would be more mindful of how it moved. In fact, what he was hearing wasn't foot falls at all, more akin to something shifting in its rest among the leaves. Being inquisitive and protective all at once, he was torn between steering the hens away from the potential danger, and investigating just how "potential" it was. Pausing, he let out a low putt ((haha, that's legitimately what the vocalization is called)) to draw the hens' attention to the possibility of danger; he'd decided he wanted to investigate if possible, but wanted everyone to be on high alert.
___Cerva heard the tom's call and stiffened, eyes wide, and craned her neck to look about from the increasingly dense tangle of brush they were traversing. He hadn't made an outright call to flee, but was signaling the possibility of danger. For the time being, the conversation was abandoned as the female scanned the area for danger. Once she was certain she observed nothing, she took a few steps towards Queztl, tilting her head curiously.
___"What is it?" she queried urgently in hushed tones. The more dominant female looked fairly calm, which comforted the hen in turn.
___"We hear something up ahead. It doesn't sound like a predator, but it's the direction we're heading all the same." She paused, then opted to editorialize a bit. "I think Dhurok wants us to stay quiet and keep alert." Sure, his call had meant this, but she added a verbal reminder herself, just loud enough for the newcomers to hear - an underhanded way of expressing her discontent with their haphazard and noisy advance through the forest.

[Beata and Anuja]

For all her boasting, Beata froze quickly upon hearing Dhurok's putt. Anuja too froze, listening carefully, but she could not hear anything in the immediate vicinity. She joined Cerva quietly as the hen moved ahead. Beata, however, kept walking ahead, past Cerva, and even a bit past Quetzl. Anuja let out a few soft clucks, but while Beata looked back at her, she did not return to her proper spot. Anuja suppressed a sigh; stupid hen would never figure it out. They were new, and thus not dominant enough to join the male in his searches.

Anuja, meanwhile, did not acknowledge Queztl's words directly but did note them. She stayed nearby Cerva, keeping silent, watching her step carefully and deciding that Beata was no longer her concern. At the moment, she would do as Dhurok said and keep alert and careful; if her companion wanted to play tough and be the first to get in the predator's way, so be it. It stung a bit to think of her companion from the farm getting eaten, but not enough to make Anuja risk going after her.

Beata, however, was not planning on charging into the fray. Much as she didn't respect Dhurok -- or anyone for that matter -- her instincts wouldn't let her go racing into danger. She didn't move much more beyond Quetzl, and instead stayed behind Dhurok, her walk careful and her eyes alert. She too heard the rustling, and focused her attention on it, her steps careful so she wouldn't go racing ahead into danger.

She was tempted to ask Dhurok what he suspected it was, but all the same she knew it was a stupid question. Clearly since he warned them he suspected it was a danger, but beyond that he certainly couldn't say any more. It would be pointless to ask him, and potentially draw the attention upon them. Thus, the female was content to stay in her own little world, watching out for the predator but not blatantly together with the flock.